loulou83

Nope I didn't know beforehand and I declined any testing. The father of my kid has two people with not so serious genetic disorders on his side and although they're not inherited I just wanted to have a carefree pregnancy and not know if anything was wrong until I had to deal with it. Nothing was ever picked up on any of my scans either and I don't think they were particularly concerned about me carrying a child that had DS as I was only 22 at the time so it was like a 1 in 1800 chance or something like that!

The tests they give you that indicate high risk or low risk are a load of crap by all accounts also. A lot of the mothers I know who have kids with DS have told me how theirs came back low risk and they've all got stories of how people were told they had a high risk and then had perfectly fine babies.

Belle

hope everything finds out to be fine!!
xx

Mervs Mum

I hope none of our members who are inclined to worry read this!! We have a few dont we.......

Girls - If you have had a low risk test result, I hope this doesnt mean you have now had your own 'carefree pregnancy' pulled from under you.....

Tests are not always 100% acurate but for the NHS to continue to offer them they must have a fairly decent detection rate.

loulou83

It depends on what kind of person you are. If you're a natural worrier then not having tests done is going to worry you more because of the "what if?" factor, if you're more like me then having a test that isn't conclusive anyways is going to make you more worried since you can't really pin anything down without an amnio which carries a risk (and more worry) in itself. To me there was a greater sense of being carefree in not knowing instead of trying to pin something down and then feeling worries fade away. As I said it's different for everybody. If you think tests are going to settle your worries I'm all for it but that's not the type of person I am at all. I don't think carefree pregnancies actually exist tho, do they? We all have our worries whether it's something we read on a forum, something that has happened to a friend or even something we see on TV since they have been some choice baby related storylines lately (and infact while I was pregnant the Eastenders DS storyline was playing out!). I hope all you ladies who've been watching Corrie haven't had their carefree pregnancies pulled out from under them!

Also the second thing you highlighted I hope you read the line below also which stated the opposite can also be true in my experience and I've heard plenty about that too so it's not to say that all the inaccuracies I've heard about are bad ones! Yes lets be realistic and say your test is likely going to be accurate but even I was suprised at the amount of people who went on to have a child with DS who were told their risk was low and the opposite. I suppose it's because of the circles I mix in.. same as if you get a new car you notice others with it on the road more!

I'm not going out of my way to worry people if that's what anybody thinks. My talking about my own experiences doesn't mean anybody is going to have a child with DS or they're not going to have a child with DS but that should be apparent to anybody with common sense!! I think it's rather dramatic to imply that one post by one person could have such consequences as ruining somebody elses pregnancy haha

PeanutBean

There is always a problem with tests that give a risk because a risk is just thet and nothing definitive. Plus we will only tend to hear about the stiking inaccuracies which will most probably be rare in comparison to the successes. This is like all things, where something is shocking it's always perceived as much more common (e.g. knife crime, paedophilia etc). Perception is a dangerous thing!

Anyway, here's my own scare story: My sister's friend went right through to amnio and was told she had like a 99% chance of the baby being DS. She had a termination and it turned out the baby would have been fine. She's regretted it ever since.

Of course, if you wouldn't consider a termination then this story is not a problem, but if you would, it's a whole new twist.

It's a one in a million story though no doubt!

Mervs Mum

I think you're absolutely right!!! There definately is not such thing as a carefree pregnancy!! But you said you did what you needed to do or not do, to try to make your pregnancy as carefree as you felt you could. To rubbish testing that lots of women here have already had as 'a load of crap' when they too are using that same testing to help them acheive the same thing you hoped for, is (IMO) a little dramatic also, to use your description.

I'm sure you're intention wasnt to worry anyone. I do however still think that having been a member here for quite some time, that this could worry some of our members who are natural worriers unnecessarily. You wont have to be a member for long to see we have quite a few among us!!

Just my opinion.

loulou83

I was speaking from personal experience, not the experience of other women. If people want the facts there's always google.com but I thought we came places like this to hear about the rather more personal experience of the individual. I wouldn't call it dramatic at all to give a negative opinion about something based upon your own experience but I'd say it's rather a stretch to imply pregnancies of strangers might be ruined by giving said opinion. That said I should probably have said "can be a load of crap" given that was what the rest of my post implied, eh?

I always assume everything is an opinion.. don't worry!

Anyways onwards and upwards, eh?

loulou83

Something similar happened to my mother's friend. They told her that two of her pregnancies were both going to result in a child with DS and she had both her kids and they were absolutely 100% fine.

Another case: my own friend was told her child had Edwards Syndrome and they were basically pushing her into a termination because she was pretty young anyway. She had the child and he's as right as rain.

You're quite right the more unusual cases do tend to stick in our minds and I think I tend to hear about them more than the average person because of the amount of special needs support groups and such I go to.

Mervs Mum

I didnt think that what you said would ruin anything - I just think sometimes little seeds of doubt can be sewn.

nikky0907

Hey,hope everything is ok Mom2many?

I didn't decline the testing but that doesn't mean that my pregnancy is carefree definitely...There will always be worries,no matter what.

You keep us updated...xxx